A Nevadan company, Mariah Power, has launched a unique wind turbine for the home, called the WindSpire. The turbine is rated at 1 kilowatt, and it has a thin design — it’s only two feet wide, but 20 feet tall (see a photo here). The color is also customizable — suggested colors are: Milky White,… [Continue Reading]
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Loopwing Wind Turbine At Japanese Tradeshow
April 19, 2007 by 8 Comments
I first saw the Loopwing wind turbine last year. Lately, the company has been showing it off in trade show across Japan. There’s still no solid data on this turbine, but the design is certain intriguing — I’m keeping my eye on this one. Here’s what the Loopwing website says about the turbine: it’s a… [Continue Reading]
IKEA To Start Charging For Plastic Bags
March 30, 2007 by 2 Comments
IKEA will begin charging customer five cents for disposable plastic bags. IKEA hopes that this move will be the first step in ending their use altogether. The company said the decision was aimed at reducing the amount of plastic bags that are thrown away. IKEA is believed to be the first major retailer in the… [Continue Reading]
Sweet: Jeans Made Out of Sugar Cane
April 4, 2007 by 9 Comments
A Japanese company is making jeans out of a blend of sugar cane and selvage denim. The cane used is Sweet Sorghum, otherwise known as Sweet Millet. It’s a type of grass grown all over the world for making a molasses-like syrup and animal feed. The Sugarcane jeans that feature this fiber have a faint… [Continue Reading]
Efficient Concrete Replacement: Blocks of Trash
April 6, 2007 by 8 Comments
From Live Science: Last year’s trash could become next year’s model home, thanks to the invention of a new type of construction material made entirely from waste products. “Bitublocks,” created by engineer John Forth of the University of Leeds in England, are composed of recycled glass, sewage sludge, incinerator ash, the by-products of metal purification… [Continue Reading]
China’s Solar-Powered City: Rizhao
May 29, 2007 by 2 Comments
Rizhao City, which means City of Sunshine in Chinese, has a unique dedication to the sun. In Rizhao, 99% of households in the central districts use solar water heaters, and most traffic signals, street and park lights are powered by photovoltaic solar cells. In the suburbs and villages, more than 30% of households use solar… [Continue Reading]
Innovation: Biodegradeable Coffee Cups!
July 3, 2007 by 6 Comments
Today, there is no way to compost or recycle the billions of disposable coffee cups used in the U.S. each year. It’s all due to a simple fact: the cups are lined with a petroleum-based plastic (polyethylene) to prevent leaking. But, finally, someone has invented a biodegradable coffee cup. The innovators are International Paper and… [Continue Reading]
Green Coffee Beans
July 5, 2007 by 4 Comments
Roasting your own coffee beans at home is quite simple. It takes about 5 to 15 minutes and you get the freshest coffee around. Green or raw coffee beans can be bought for $4 to $5 per pound, about half the price of the roasted kind. Look for fair-traded, organic coffee beans — it’s the… [Continue Reading]
Storing Sunshine Using Flow Batteries
July 17, 2007 by 2 Comments
Flow batteries are a unique kind of battery — they have tanks that hold hundreds of gallons of the chemicals, called electrolytes. Flow batteries just happen to be very good at storing solar or wind power. Renewable power sources suffer from being intermittent, and less reliable for continuous power supply than coal or gas. Neither… [Continue Reading]
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